Bulle Ogier and Jacques Rivette on the set of L'Amour fou
Photo by Pierre Zucca
In the last issue of Senses of Cinema, Daniel Fairfax reviewed Douglas Morrey and Alison Smith's Jacques Rivette, and now, for Issue 61, Mary Wiles has allowed the editors to choose a chapter from her forthcoming Jacques Rivette. Rolando Caputo's decided to go with the one on L'amour fou (1969) for a number of reasons, but primarily because "the film seems the point of historical conjunction between the end of one wave and the coming of a second wave of filmmakers that washed up in its undertow. At a stretch, one can see the shadow of this film on the cinema of Jean Eustache, Maurice Pialat, Philippe Garrel and others. L'amour fou is a great and wondrous film." And he's running Rivette's 1950 essay "We Are Not Innocent Anymore" as well.
Also in this issue: Marko Bauer, Luka Umek and Dasa Cerar's interview with and video essay about Aleksandr Sokurov; Murray Pomerance: "Cinema is not only a repository of signs but an ideal formative space"; Raphaël Bassan: "During the last century, abstraction in the realm of painting brought about one of the major revolutions in fine arts. How has this notion been considered and integrated by avant-garde and experimental filmmakers?"; Viviane Vagh's interview with Marcel Mazé, founder and president of France's first filmmakers' co-op, the Collectif Jeune Cinéma; Ara Corbett on John Korty; George Sikharulidze's interview with Sara Driver; David Phelps on Shinoda Masahiro; and, as always with Senses of Cinema, much more to catch up with over the holidays.
Entering today's roundup of year-end lists, the first order of business is to mention that Catherine Grant has topped off another year at her indispensable site, Film Studies for Free, with a meticulously outlined selection of her "Favourite Online Film Studies Resources in 2011." Now this is a link-heavy list that may take you longer than the holidays to exhaust.
Vinyl Is Heavy and Hell on Frisco Bay's week-long series on the year that was has been updated with contributions from Matthew Flanagan, Dave McDougall, Akiva Gottlieb and Eric Freeman.
The L Magazine's collection of top tens features annotated lists from Mark Asch, Henry Stewart, Nicolas Rapold, Benjamin Mercer and Jesse Hassenger. "The Playlist Staff Pick Their Most Underrated & Overrated Films Of 2011." Ali Arikan has a paragraph on each of his ten; his #1: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. At Newcity Film, Ray Pride posts 12 top fives. Todd McCarthy's list for the Hollywood Reporter runs to 30 films. JR Jones's #4 is Azazel Jacobs's Terri.
Usama Alshaibi's Profane is Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film's 2011 Movie of the Year. Wildgrounds has clips for its tops and flops of the year in Asian film. At Movie Morlocks, R Emmet Sweeney celebrates the "Top Twelve Genre Films of 2011." Sean Axmaker lists the "10 Best Reasons to Celebrate the Seattle Film Scene in 2011." At Fandor, Vadim Rizov ranks the "Best Animal Performances of 2011."
Videogum looks back on the "Best Viral Videos of 2011," while the Creative Review posts its "Music Video Picks of the Year."
Festival news. "Festival de Cannes president Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Frémaux will remain in their posts through 2014," reports Nigel M Smith at indieWIRE.
Slamdance has added eight special features and 75 shorts to its lineup. Ryland Aldrich has details at Twitch.
In the works. Ariston Anderson talks with Emir Kusturica for Filmmaker: "His hotly awaited Pancho Villa film is on, this time with a slightly truncated script. Benicio Del Toro, no stranger to playing Mexican revolutionaries, takes over the role from Arizona Dream star Johnny Depp, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts." Kusturica is also building Kamengrad, "an entire stone city along the Drina River, built from the memories of the Balkans' greatest cultural achievements…. The project is ambitious, aiming to be the Balkans' answer to the Goethe-Institut, a strong cultural center for Slavic studies, culminating in the Andrić Institute. In addition to building the city as a monument to Ivo Andrić, Kamengrad will also serve as the set for parts of his upcoming adaptation of [Andrić's novel] The Bridge on the Drina."
Frances McDormand has joined John Krasinski in Matt Damon's as-yet-untitled directorial debut, reports the Playlist's Oliver Lyttelton.
Viewing (2'30"). Trailer for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
2011 Awards and Lists Index. For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed.